Holidays

I have been running around like a crazy person lately!

I'll be going on a little break from the blog for Christmas and New Years so I can spend plenty of time with family. I haven't had much time to work on furniture and crafts, but lots of new things are in the works. I promise lots of new adventures next year!
We will be trying for mid March for our next show at the Raleigh Flea market, and it will be better than ever.
Have a wonderful Christmas and blessed holiday!
----Beth

What I Learned About Having A Booth

This week ended and began something new for me.

On November 1st I got the chance to live my dream and open a booth at a furniture shop. I was so excited setting up my booth and filling it with so many treasures. At the same time I was extremely nervous and worried about what the future held with me actually making money on this adventure. So, as we drove away from the shop the first day after unloading, I knew I had probably made the wrong decision.

My booth!

I got really caught up in what I thought I was supposed to do, it was the logical next step to have a place in a store where people could buy all of the items I worked on. And I really wanted it to be awesome and perfect and everything I had ever wanted. 

But the truth was that it wasn't what I wanted. At least not right now or right here. 

I found myself selling things, but it was not my furniture, the thing I loved to do. I work so hard to give old pieces new life and something you would love to have in your house, and I love it! I don't love digging through every thrift store and yard sale finding things I may or may not be able to sell just to make a profit. 

Don't get me wrong, I love a good thrift store and yard sale, but I want to buy and sell things I love and other people love so much they want to buy it to. 

Some of the "smalls"

I made the decision pretty early on that I would not be able to stay at the shop. I didn't sell anything until the last week and I was still in the negative. And then we were given a good opportunity to leave at the end of the month me and my husband decided that we needed to move on.

So that ended my adventure with having my furniture in a shop (for now). But I am beginning to find out what makes me and my style one of a kind.

The biggest lesson that I learned was I need to do what I love, upholstery, paint, and stain, and sometimes added bits and bobs. Not filler items that might sale but the furniture I put my heart and soul into. That's what makes me happy! So I need to find a place (flea market or shop) that supports my passion (and sells it!).

So, for now, we plan on going back to the Raleigh Flea Market in the spring and having a show every other month. (Vintage toys included) I'll have to put in all the hard work that comes with moving and selling my items, but no one ever said your dreams would be easy.

Keep stopping by, following us on Facebook and Pinterest, and see what's new. You never know, you might learn something new of find the perfect piece for your home.

----Beth

Cream and Yellow Chair, Paint and Reupholster.

This was a great piece to work on. Good wood, sturdy, a nice shape to the chair, and something I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like when it was done. 

This chair had some issues when I bought it. Not really beautiful or special at all, kind of looked like a restaurant chair. Plus, the cushion was flat as a rock to sit on, so I knew it was going to need a little extra work. 

I though this would be an easy one day project (yeah right!) Just turning the chair over I knew it would take me a little longer. 

The screws were completely stripped, so that took a good day to work out. I though I would cry when I finally got the last one out. 

Then I began my least favorite thing, pulling staples! In my opinion, the term should be as hard as pulling staples bot teeth. But I do love my staple puller! (And convenient truvia box  staple holder!) The c only part I like about pulling staples is that I can watch TV during the tedious work. 

And boy did I have good TV to watch with this chair!  

And once I had finished all of my fun with staples I removed the fabric and discovered the reason why the cushion was so hard and flat.  The cushion was crumbling! It had definitely seen better days. I used a knife the scrape the cushion off (that was a new one), and then got to work on rebuilding. 

I cut out a nice new piece of foam for the seat that is so much more comfortable than before. I dug into my ever growing pile of fabric and decided on a yellow fabric with a cream design. And then painting started.

I started getting the cream color on and was in love instantly! I also used a polycrylic instead of waxing, which I really liked. I might use it more often in the future. 

Isn't it lovely! I can picture it as someone's office chair or side chair in a dinning room. It's more comfortable, looks amazingly better, and would make the perfect addition to any room!

----Beth

Pumpkin Spice Table -SOLD

A few months ago I talked my brother into keeping an eye out for furniture I might want to refinish. He goes by furniture shops and thrift stores in a different area than I normally can go by and thought it would be a fun adventure for him to find things for me. He wasn't really into it until I told him he would get a percentage of what I sold the piece for. Then he jumped on board with dollar signs in his eyes. :)

It didn't take long for him to find me this cute little side table.

I had a vision of purple paint and a stained top with a purple tint. Just a week before my brother brought this to me my husband had found me a TON of stain for free! (seriously for free). And most of them had a purple like tint to them. 

I ended up finishing a table with the purple paint and decided that I just wasn't in love with it for the end table. So it sat in my sun room for a little too long and I kind of forgot about it. But then fall came and my love for pumpkin everything made me buy a beautiful orange paint color. 

I knew I wanted to do a table for chair in the color, something big but not so much that it stood out too much. And all of a sudden I remembered my pretty little end table with the gorgeous legs! It was a match made in heaven, perfect color for this table, and once I was finished I was so glad it wasn't purple and that I had forgotten about just long enough for it to end up this color.

My "Pumpkin Spice" end table! 

And I was not the only one who agreed, because it sold the next day! I didn't even have time to take a good 'after' picture. I was almost sad to see it sell because I loved it so much and the color makes me think about the changing leaves and crisp fall air. But I'm so glad it has a great new home! And my brother was a happy camper with his commission. I have a feeling it won't take him long before he's sending more my way. 

----Beth

Distressed Antique White Vanity - For Sale

When I found this vanity it wasn't half bad. Had a nice color to it, good size for a bedroom accessory, and pretty details.

Sadly the top was badly damaged. My guess was finger nail polish and remover spilled on top, and some nice dents and nicks in the wood. It also had some general wear on the legs and mirror. I felt like it would be worth it to refinish the entire piece.

Sanding took FOREVER since the stain was so dark and I wanted to smooth out the top as much as I could. 

Them came the coats of paint. I wanted to get it as white as possible and as smooth as possible. I started out thinking I might turn it onto a Frozen themed vanity for a little girls room (complete with a frosted mirror, snow fakes, and some Elsa like swirls) It would have been fun, but I didn't really love the idea for this piece as I started working on it more. 

Then I had my mind set on a zebra print for the stool and paint white for the vanity and a zebra print on the inside of the drawer. But again, I just didn't love the idea as time went on. 

Then, as I painted the last coat of crisp white it hit me what I wanted this vanity to be!

I started to see some areas I would love to distress, then I grabbed some off white paint I had mixed for another project and added select areas of the antique white, giving it more depth and an older look. I sanded the whole thing down and added my wax and loved the result! The distressing was easy, I wanted just enough to give it a worn feel. 

Then I went searching for fabric in my ever growing mound of ever color and pattern imaginable (eventually I'll have a picture of it!). And when I saw my burlap sitting I the corner from my burlap top stool I knew it was meant to be.

All set up at my last sale with tons of jewelry.

I love those worn edges! Makes the shape stand out so nicely. 

The best part of this lovingly distressed vanity is that it can be yours! Available for sale at my furniture booth at A Junkin Ginger. It is also available for rent for photo shoots and weddings. Just imagine that perfect "getting ready" picture with this vanity by your side. 

A Junkin' Ginger 

1403 W. Webb Avenue

Burlington, NC

---- Beth

Purple Coffee Table

This coffee table I worked on a few months ago turned out to be so much fun! I had been saving this great light purple paint for the perfect project, and I'm glad I waited for this table.

I picked up this coffee table from my favorite thrift store along with some other awesome finds. It was scratched up a lot and had definitely seen better days, the legs were wobbly, and the fold out sides needed some work.

Did I mention the awesome fold out sides! It turned the normal coffee table into so much extra space in your living room! We play games all the time at my house, so this table screamed game playing to me, just enough space to spread out your monopoly money! 

But, as much as I love real wood color, this wood was not going to stay, so I had to start thinking about color. White didn't seem right, my favorite teal wasn't right either, red was a good contender, but once I started to think about purple I knew it would be perfect. 

The more I painted the more I wanted to distress the table, which was a great move since it pulled out so many tones in the purple. Plus, it has a lovely shabby chic, country house look to it.  Now it is just waiting for the perfect home!

----Beth

October 18th Sale

Wondering when/where you can see and buy my custom furniture? We will be at the GrandDaddys annual fall yard sale in Burlington on October 18th at 7:00 am!

There will be freebies, business cards, and tons of furniture! My husband will also have a large amount of vintage toys and video games, along with normal yard sale type items. I look forward to seeing you there. 

---- Beth

Raleigh Flea Market!

We had a great time at the Raleigh flea Market back in July (I can't believe it's been that long!).

Our fun adventure started very early on Saturday, we struggled to pack everything in the SUV and my dad's trailer. We even had to leave stuff behind because we just didn't have enough room! Arriving at the flea market was so exciting! We found our spot and got to work on setting up. Sadly many of my furniture pieces were scratched and rubbed on the very bumpy trailer and got set to the back for me to fix later. (Thankfully everything could be repaired) We got help from some of our flea market neighbors to unpack the bigger furniture (Thank You!) and started selling almost the second we had everything out of the truck.

My husband had a lot of luck with his vintage toys and video games selling at first, but in no time my pieces were finding new homes!

We got to meet so many wonderful people, and wished that we had went ahead and printed business cards to have ready for the sale. Next time we will be ready.

And I'm so excited these pieces all found new homes along with tons of vintage books, decorative items, a vintage set of green luggage, lacy curtains, and so much more I can;t even remember.

We will be heading out again soon for our fall sale! Will be updating with more information soon. 

---- Beth

Dark Blue Chair SOLD

I got so busy with getting things ready for our first sale that I didn't get the chance to post about any of the furniture I was getting ready. Hopefully I'll be able to update about all of my finished pieces very soon.

This chair came into my collection from my mother. She was at one of our favorite furniture stores and sent me a picture of a set of three chairs. This yellow one was in the background and I immediately sent her a text back about it. She sent back that she know I would like that one too!

I loved the details on the chair and the very sturdy design. It was older and the vinyl seat only added the age, even though it was still in really good condition.

I custom mixed the chalk pain to my liking and took a few nights to get good coverage on every little nook and cranny. It got a good coat of wax to seal it afterwards and then it was time to pick a fabric!

I love the squares! Very cute and modern and gives the whole chair a face lift!

 The details look really good with the dark blue color, I felt like the design looks so much better dark, and was a huge improvement over the faded yellow.

Sadly this chair is no longer for sale. It sold at my flea market sale to a wonderful lady who loved it! So happy it has a great home now.

Country Burlap Stool

I found this old stool and imediatly knew what I wanted it to look like.

The cusion was ruined and the legs were pretty banged up, but it was solid and had a working swivle to it. It had four individually stapled layers of fabric on it, so the longest task was removing those. (I enjoy watching movies as I take out staples) The original fabric was an off white canvas like material, very pretty in its own way, but very damaged.

The day I bought this stool I had also bought 4 big old burlap coffee bags. I decided that the burlap would be my fabric for the seat, but to make it a little more girly I would add lace and a pink/rose color for the legs. I even finished it off with a lace bow! I love the country look to it.

---- Beth

Antique Chair in Distressed Teal - SOLD

This was my second experiment with chalk pain. I had a lot of paint left over from my last end table that I did in chalk paint, and this was the perfect project for it since I wanted to do some distressing. I bought this chair and the second I got home started painting away. I didn't even wait to take a good before picture, I was so excited to get my hands (and paint) on it.

It had some really beautiful detailing that gave it a little extra character. 

I was careful to make sure it really stood out on the finished chair.

I gave the seat a really rough look.

The finished piece has just the right amount of distressing. I imagine it as a decorative chair in a kitchen or entry way, maybe even a bathroom with an antique theme.

---- Beth

Teal Stained/Painted End Table

I found this end table at a local Salvation Army store with the drawer falling out and the table top with some decent wear. I didn't have any cash on me the day I saw it, but returned first thing the next day and raced to the back in hopes of it still being there. I was very excited to see my new project still available! The drawer was an easy fix, but the top needed a bit more work.

Before

I had seen some similar tables on Pinterset redone with stained tops and painted legs. The table top was rough and since I planned on sanding it down to the bones I decided staining it would be fun. But, because I had sanded it down so much and it was a little rough afterwards, it took A LOT of coats of stain! About 10 coats for the finished top. But well worth the smooth, dark finished look.

Then came the pain! I fell in love with this color (my favorite color!) when I saw it as a sample at Lowes, and then when I bought this table I decided it was perfect. This was my first project to try chalk paint. Due to the cost of professional chalk paint and that I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, I did a lot of research on how to make my own. My first mixture was perfect! I love the consistency and how fast it dried. By the time I had one coat around the legs it was fully dry for the second coat. 

Waxing the table to seal the chalk paint was a little harder, but after some playing around, it looked so good!

The pictures don't even do it justice, it looks so good in person! And one of the best parts, it is a good solid piece of wood furniture, ready to take on years of use. 

----Beth

Stained and Painted Nightstand

I finished this night stand/side table about a month ago but haven't gotten the chance to post it until now. I'm so happy with how it turned out!

The stained top took me the longest. I wanted it to be really dark. I used a stain and polyuathane combo and I was very happy with the way it went on and looked so shiny. It took about 7 coats of the stain over a week to get it perfect.

Painting took some time with the open area on the bottom being a little awkward to get into, but nothing to hard. After looking at new drawer pulls I knew I had to get this one, it matched the stain and almost gave the whole table a fresh look. I love it!

I knew the second I bought it what I wanted it to look like in the end and it turned out perfect! It is my favorite piece so far.

I'm hoping to have two more pieces finished this week if I have time, a gray chair and another stained top\painted bottom table (with a pop of color!).

---- Beth